This week marks one year since the debut of the most recent season of Mad Men, which only underscores how much we are missing one of the best series on television, a show which till now had always returned in the summer.

The wait isn’t even close to being over, but at least we can start the clock ticking now. AMC has announced that production on the three-time Emmy winner for best drama will resume on Monday, August 8, with a fifth season premiere sometime in early 2012. Series star Jon Hamm is slated to direct the season premiere, though what that episode will deal with is anyone guess, other than that it will be set in 1966 or later, and people will smoke a lot.

One bit of intrigue involves January Jones, who plays Betty Draper Francis on the show, and is pregnant in real life. Will Jones’s pregnancy be written into Mad Men (it’s hard to imagine Betty’s new husband wanting a child with her, based on the way last season ended between them), or will she simply be shot in a way that conceals her condition (a possibility, given that Betty isn’t seen nearly as often now that she’s no longer married to Don Draper)? A third option would be delaying the shooting of many of Jones’s scenes until after she gives birth, which is scheduled for November.